After Kanye West tried to upstage Beck‘s Album of the Year Grammy acceptance speech this past Sunday, ostensibly due to “Morning Phase” pulling an upset over Beyoncé‘s self-titled surprise release, a SoundCloud user decided to put together a brilliant mashup: “Single Loser (Put a Beck on It),” by “Beckyoncé.”

Believe it or not, Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” dance tune actually works beautifully when set against the jangly guitar of Beck’s 1993 hit “Loser.” Read More »

The 22-year-old British singer took home three of the night’s top prizes, including best new artist, record of the year, and song of the year. During his last acceptance speech, he thanked the guy whom his breakout album “In the Lonely Hour” is about, saying “Thank you so much for breaking my heart because you got me four Grammys.”

In the other major category, album of the year, Beck’s album “Morning Phase” upset Beyonce, Pharrell Williams, Ed Sheeran and Smith, earning the singer-songwriter his first Grammy in this category. He was previously nominated twice, and has narrowly avoided the triple-loss club. “Morning Phase” also won the Grammy for best rock album.

Other big winners of the night include Pharrell Williams, Beyonce,Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, and Miranda Lambert. See the list of Grammy winners. Read More »

The 57th annual Grammy Awards gets under way tonight at 8 p.m. EST on CBS. Several big performances are scheduled, including Katy Perry, Rihanna with Paul McCartney and Kanye West, and Coldplay’s Chris Martin joining Beck for a number. On the award side, there are several promising match-ups involving record of the year and best new artist. A standout category for the evening is the album of the year award, which honors the top LP of the past 12 months. Get to know the sounds of tonight’s nominees by listening to their albums on Spotify. Read More »

The 57th annual Grammy awards gets under way this Sunday night and it promises to delight the aural senses with performances by Katy Perry, Sia, Beck with Coldplay’s Chris Martin and Rihanna with Kanye West and Paul McCartney. But awards will be doled out too! Ahead of “music’s biggest night,” here are the 5 key match-ups to watch out for. Read More »

Nielsen released their 2014 year-end report today, highlighting how music was consumed over the last year. First, the bad news: Total album sales were down from 2013, with a dip of 11.2%, topping out at 257 million records bought either on CD, cassette, vinyl or digitally. Only four albums topped 1 million in sales, compared to 13 in 2013.

Track sales were down 12.5% as well from the previous year. But on-demand streaming continued to rise, with a 54.5% change from 2013. The total amount of audio streams was 163.9 billion, calculated from AOL, Beats Music, Google Play, Medianet, RDIO, Rhapsody, Slacker, Spotify, Xbox Music, and YouTube/Vevo. Read More »

In case the “Beyoncé” Platinum Edition box set didn’t satisfy your overwhelming desire to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the pop superstar’s monumental surprise album drop, fear not, because Yoncé’s got you covered. Earlier today, Brooklyn’s official celebrity royals greeter released a short film on her YouTube channel called “Yours and Mine.”

The 11-minute-long black-and-white movie finds Beyoncé reflecting on her life, set against clips from the self-titled album’s string of videos and behind-the-scenes footage. “Yours and Mine” feels like an extension of both “Beyoncé,” as well as the singer’s HBO documentary from earlier this year, “Life Is But a Dream.” Read More »

Like many recent years, 2014 was up and down in the world of music. iTunes saw a significant decline in digital download sales, as streaming services like Spotify, Rdio, and Pandora continued to attract customers toward their “all you can stream” offerings. Female pop musicians dominated the airwaves and online, with Katy Perry’s video for “Dark Horse” becoming the most-watched video on YouTube, along with six other female pop stars. What were the year’s biggest moments that have made a lasting impression for years to come? Scroll down for our picks for the best 15 music moments of the year.

Click through to see our picks for the 15 best music moments of the year. Read More »

Facebook released its year-end findings on the topics users discussed most on the social network. They could be viewed as a reflection of the interests of the overall population. About 74% of U.S. adults on the Internet use Facebook, according to the Pew Internet Project.

Most of the topics that dominated discussion this year were major, ongoing news stories or sporting events.

Facebook’s top 10 lists were based on how frequently a topic was mentioned in users’ posts in 2014. In its methodology, the company said the posts “were analyzed in an aggregated, anonymized way.” Read More »

In some ways, William and Kate are optimal fans for the Brooklyn Nets, a club which, since their arrival in the borough for the 2012-13 season, have made the playoffs twice, won plaudits for their stadium’s creature comforts and artisanal foodstuffs, and yet play before a crowd that is less rowdy than it is reserved.

The royal couple spent the second night of their brief New York trip watching the second half of the Nets game against the Cleveland Cavaliers at the Barclays Center, which can be a quiet place—you can find louder weekend brunches in this neighborhood. So the fact that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge aren’t exactly NBA lunatics didn’t really make them stand out. They’re just two more people trying to figure out how passionate they’re going to be about basketball in Brooklyn.

For those of you who failed to tune in or, at the very least, DVR the game, click through for five top moments of the Royal basketball outing. Read More »

About Speakeasy

Speakeasy is a blog covering media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. The publication is produced by Barbara Chai and Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com or follow us on Twitter at @WSJSpeakeasy or individually @barbarachai.